Caray, Caray!

Back to the small house: Andre is talking to Auntie. She mentions that girl in the next room . Why don’t you go in and see if you know her . . . He would be surprised to see the twin of his long-lost wife.

Diana is visiting a neighbor, Lola. Lola asks about her new job—oh, now you can pay to get your mother out of prison. Huh? Diana is impactada.

Battle of the Chicas: On the beach, Caramelo yells at Paola to get her mitts off Pancho. Paola prances off. Pancho shoves Caramelo. Paola says: What a vulgar girl. She’s really classy, of course. Caramelo is shrieking so much she will become hoarse.

She pushes Pancho down in the sand, then rushes into the water and attacks Paola!. Pancho smiles lustfully at the catfight.

Octavia is talking about firing the nurse again. Max says no you can’t. Mom says yes I can—I’m in charge of the help. Max: If you fire her I will move out with my wife and get my own apartment … Oooh.

Diana comes home to fake granny and asks about whether her mother is in prison. Granny is impactada.

Andrea and Auntie continue discussing the mystery woman. Auntie asks if he is still looking for that wife you had that abandoned you. No I haven’t found her. Again, so close and yet so far.

M/D is asking Bruno why Max won’t sleep with her. She is mad at this big diss. She always speaks like a petulant four-year-old.

Diego and Pancho try to stop the cat fight. Caramelo says “suelteme” (Let me go) This is an expression that comes up a lot in this novela (and never in LFMB). She runs away. Pancho says all women are crazy.

Diana tries to get the story from granny. Is she a killer. No, she was an inventor. You should be proud of your mother and father. This makes no sense, I know. I am not really 100 percent sure what granny was saying here.

Max is talking to Larry. Larry is still splayed on bed like a Calvin Klein underwear model. Max is wearing the same sweater, but now it is dry. Larry wants to kill himself. Max reminds him that he has a film contract. He says he got over his love for Marfil in two years, and Larry will too.

O complains to sister about Max and Diana. Sis doesn’t believe it. O doesn’t want Max to move out. If he does, we can’t keep an eye on them. Max wants to divorce his wife and marry the nurse. That would be a blot on our name (kidnapping and murder don’t count? . . . oh, I’m getting ahead of myself.)

Max tells Larry he wants to hug and kiss Diana. What if Mom finds out. Geez, Max looks like he’s 40 years old, why doesn’t he move out? Max tells Larry that Diana rejected him because he’s married. Larry says Max is “acorralado” (trapped)

It’s not fair, says Max, that my wife would return to life. Boy that’s a funny way to put it. Our lives are an inferno.

Paco and Gaviota: I know you are incapable of a misdeed. She tells the whole story. Now we are about to get into a very important FLASHBACK.
Octavia and her husband Hector (or whatever) were her employees at the perfume factory. H was hubby’s right hand and O was the administrator. H had a passion for Fedora. O and H lived in the mansion as a gesture of friendship.
H is trying to rape Fedora. Fedora says stop telling me you love me. My husband is your best friend. You are our employee. You are like a brother.
Ha Ha. You are going down! Sooner or later I will have you! Again, this idea of these attempted rapes is rather disturbing to me, as I have never watched these novelas before. They really are all about power.
No, she says, today you are getting out. No. Suelteme. You will not get away. Husband is looking at the books. “No puede ser.” O and H have stolen all our money and transferred the house to their name. Gee. How did he find those books now, but failed to notice in the past . . .
H comes in. O says kill him: he has found us out. H throws a figurine at him and knockes him out. Fedora comes in—call 911.
O says tell security not to let them leave. O wipes fingerprints from statuette. Fedora goes upstairs and picks up the two little girls.

Cut away from flashback. They took my children, they accused me of murder. After the trial, they celebrated. Yolanda the sister says I abandoned them in Europe (I still don’t understand why Octavia doesn’t know who these girls are – or does she? Can someone clarify. Similarly, doesn’t she know that Fedora got out of prison?
Paco tells her to cry. Let out this hate you have inside.

New flashback. O and H are eating at a Spanish style table that looks like something from a Christopher Lee vampire movie. H toasts her acumen at stealing and killing. Organ music plays. Then he grabs his chest. What’s in this wine. It’s a special poison that produces a heart attack. He drops dead while Octavia calmly takes bite of her food or a sip of her wine. (Where are the kids in all this? Who knows?)

Fake granny is praying to a crucifix that Diana and Gaby don’t find out about their bad mommy.
Diana prays to granny’s sewing machine: Diego loves me but I can’t return his love.

Old man Lorenzo to Caramelo at the bar: You know you’re at the bar, because Caramelo is wearing her serving wench costume, which consists of a giant red sailor hat (oh, yes, she has clothes on too). The hat really clashes with her red hair but fits in with the nautical theme of dad’s bar.
Lorenzo consoles her—you’ll find someone else. Paco comes in and C starts crying and tells dad what Pancho did.

Diana is now visisting with Diego’s and Pancho’s mom. Mom tells Diana that Diego loves her and she should learn to love Diego. You will suffer if you love Max Irazabal.

At the mansion, Mom, Sis, Max and D/M are eating dinner. Mom wants to know why Larry and Paola aren’t there. Paola went to the beach, and Larry is shut up in his room. He just got dumped the day before, but O doesn’t care . . . You know I want everyone here, says control freak.

M: Calm down, Mother, you know Larry is in no condition to come to dinner.

D/M complains that Max won’t sleep with her—there’s appropriate dinner conversation with your mother in law. Mom says: you should dedicate yourself to your wife. Why not go to a trip. First go to Houston and get rehab in one of their fine hospitals. Then go on a second honeymoon. (Folks I’m still not sure if Octavia knows she’s a fake. I think not, but if anyone knows for sure . . . )
D/M claps her hand with glee.

Diego’s mom still trying to talk Diana into loving Diego. Now the two brothers come in. Pancho says “hi future sister in law.” Diego asks her to stay for dinner, but she pulls away. Ding dong. Who’s at the door? Paco, and is he enojado. He punches Paco. Why are you playing with my daughter. Diego pushes him away. Pancho denies everything—what a creep—and says that these women are crazy and making up stuff. (or something like that). Diego says—calm down, we can’t have a scandal in my mother’s house (why he does this even though he knows everything is true is beyond me.)

D/M still trying to get Max to go on a honeymoon. I would love to return to Italy. Uh-oh. Another boo boo: Max is impactado. When did you ever go to Italy. Wild eyed scramble by D/M to come up with a cover story.

Paco: how can you make promises to my daughter. Pancho. They’re imagining things. Etc. Finally Paco leaves: he tells Paco he will kill him if he comes around Caramelo again. Now Mom lays into Pancho and says he is shameful and useless and doesn’t have a job, etc. Why can’t he be like his brother.
Pancho yells at Mom. Diego tells him not to talk to mom that way. Diana tries to leave. Mom: how could you do that to a nice girl like Caramelo. You’re a vividor: A seemingly disparaging word for a person who likes the high life , but also a scrounger or sponger (or a schnorrer, as we would say in Yiddish). Either definition would work here.

Diego tries to convince Diana to marry him. I would respect you you would be the happiest woman in the world. Etc.

Camila is back in her apt. with her brother Emilio. Trying to find out what he knows about Max and Marfil (Emilio is Max’s friend). She wants him to get Max to divorce stupid Marfil and Marry Camila. Emilio says: Marfil is not your rival. He loves someone else. (Maybe Camila can stab someone else now!) Emilio says he wants to stay out of her problems with Max. I guess he doesn’t know his sister stabs people. (Camila is the one who stabbed Dr. Evil, but Dr. Evil thinks Diana did it because he didn’t see, and of course, he hates Diana. He hates Camila too, but for some reason, he doesn’t think of her as a potential assailant.)

Back to the dinner table. D/M comes up with a whopper: I went to Italy many years ago with a girlfriend, before I knew you. Strange you never told me .
Sister Yolanda looks like she suspects something is wrong but says nothing.
O says all this is besides the point. The important thing is to go on a trip. Max: There will be no trip. She can have rehab right here with Diana!

Diego talks to Diana some more.

Cut to Larry on bed: Still in same position and outfit! Gaby comes in to bring him dinner: Young Larry, you must eat. (She calls him Joven or Joven Larry, which seems to be like the Spanish version of Master Lawrence if you were watching Upstairs Downstairs.) You are entering a contest where you can win a prize. What do I care about a prize now. I’ve lost the woman I love. What does Kike have that I don’t have? I want to kill myself. Don’t do that—I would feel bad—I would want to kill myself. Says Gaby. Why, I don’t understand? Do you love me, Gaby? Meaningful glances are exchanged. Credits roll.

Impressions here: That backstory about Octavia and Fedora is really shocking, but I gather par for the course in these shows. Do people usually get away with murder, or will O get caught in the end?

Labels: acorralada